Deliciously gooey chocolate Bakewell brownies

I know most people are trying to avoid chocolate right now but sometimes when you are having a really bad day, chocolate is the only answer! These brownies are so gooey, you could almost have them as a dessert with ice cream. The story of this recipe began in my kitchen wanting to use up some ingredients in the cupboard – for example the cherries and ground almonds. Whilst the creation isn’t overpowered by these flavours, the theme is semi Bakewell tart! I also made a mistake of getting hooked on duck eggs the other weekend so I wanted to try them in a cake. I thought I would try them out and they are just out of this world. I strongly recommend you to make scrambled eggs with them also – so creamy! Duck eggs are slightly more expensive than normal ones but you end up using less….so it kind of works out about the same. Please let me know what you think of the recipe if you try baking them!

Recipe (makes about 16 brownies)

225g caster sugar

185g dark chocolate – 70% cocoa solids

2 duck eggs (or 3 large normal eggs)

25g ground almonds

60g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

185g unsalted butter

50g milk chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla essence

50g glacé cherries chopped

splash of milk

Equipment:

20cm square baking tin

Method

Preheat the oven to 1800C and line the baking tin with greaseproof paper. Also grease the whole tin and paper to ensure the mixture really doesn’t stick!

Heat the chocolate and butter in the microwave on 30 second blasts until melted. Leave to cool slightly while carrying on with the recipe.

Whisk the eggs until frothy and then whisk the sugar into them until you get a thick and mousse like substance. It is very similar to making a chocolate fondant! Use an electric whisk for this, unless you really want a work out.

Stir in the chocolate mixture as gently as possible, so you don’t knock out the air. Also add the vanilla essence.

Sieve in the flour and cocoa powder and fold this into the wet mixture, along with the ground almonds.